UKfan4Life

Being a Kentucky fan, everyone knows I'm happy about this but what happened to Duke? They lost to FSU, Wake Forest, and even NC State! I mean come on! They were great last year! They got some pretty good players too so what's the problem? Lack of confidence? Maybe. Lack of Motivation? Doubtful.

Who knows what it is but they're just not the same ball club they used to be.

The Truth

Do you know anything about Duke? Your message is preposterous.

Duke is going to have downtimes every once in a while. Duke lost THREE all-americans early to the NBA last year. Its amazing that they are as good as they are. Do you realize how young they are? Do you realize that four of their key players are freshmen?

Don't worry, Duke will be back to dominance next year. They are only losing Jones and Sanders, and they are getting the best college bound recruit in the nation.

Hey, every now and then, Duke is going to have a tough transition season. However, at least it won't be a 5 year transition like it has been for Kentucky.

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"Everybody is identical in their secret unspoken belief that way deep down they are different from everyone else."

JustinYoung

What he said ^^^.

Duke will have experience and Deng on top of the already amazing freshmen that done the Devil blue. Duhon comes back for a senior season. (We know how teams do with seniors...ie Duke of 01, Maryland 02, Arizona 03, etc). Reddick will be an All American canidate. Shav and Shelden will be a force down low like Maryland's post players of last year. And Ewing, along with Deng, will fill the role of scoring that Jones leaves behind. And I'm not even factoring Kris Humphries in all of this.

Like Truth pointed out, they lost three All American players yet remain one of the top 15 teams in the nation. Now will they reach the Final Four? Probably not. But you've got to give credit where it is due.

DaFuture

but I dont know about recruiting Deng he is not a four year player even though he is of a different breed (he is Senagalese) and doesnt exactly have the same values as some of the NBA-loving players that are Americans have. He is a one-year player at best. I really question Shav, I am not sure he has the heart to play at this level

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Been Gone For A Minute!

UKfan4Life

Well obviously I know nothing about Duke...or the ACC for that matter. I've just watched some of the games. But yeah, you're right. It's a transition year for them.

spartanfan2003

Nah, they are just Duke fans that will do anything to defend Duke. I agree with you man. They are overrated. You should have posted this in like the main forum part. People would be giving better responses in my opinion. Haha, aren't message boards fun, but these smiles are gay.

Hollis

JustinYoung is a Duke fan now? It's funny that you of all people talk about fans that will do anything to defend their team, not to mention a team being overrated....

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Hollis' Personal Forum

The Truth

THEY LOST 3 ALL-AMERICANS EARLY TO THE NBA!!! THEY RELY ON FRESHMEN TO PERFORM AT A HIGH LEVEL IN EVERY GAME!!!!

Look at MSU, they are in transition as well. The only difference is Duke is playing better in their transition season than MSU is.

Just think, everyone says MSU would be so much better if Taylor hadn't left. If he made that much of a difference, think about the difference Williams, Dunleavy, and Boozer would make.

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"Everybody is identical in their secret unspoken belief that way deep down they are different from everyone else."

ChiBullsFan

This year is definitely a "down year" for Duke, but I am actually very happy watching this team.

It's a special feeling to watch a team grow into Champions, and this current team is primed for that next year. I was at Duke during the "down year" featuring a team led by Battier and C-Well, with a group of talented freshman named Williams, Boozer and Dunleavy. This team performed well given their youth, and by the next year they were cutting down the nets in Minneapolis.

This year's Duke team is going to be doing the same thing next year. They have a group of talented freshman, headed by Redick. Dockery, Williams and Randolph have all produced and have shown they will be big time players next year. Even Mike Thompson and Lee Melchionni, who haven't gotten many minutes, have shown they can play. Next year we bring in two top talents -- Luol Deng and Kris Humphries -- who are expected to contribute right away. And in fact it probably wouldn't surprise anyone if Deng is the team's best player.

Add this talented group of freshman and sophs to a veteran core of Duhon, Horvath and Ewing and you can see why this team is ready to dominate. They will be 11 guys deep and oozing with talent at every position.

So I'll take a "down year" right now and will enjoy watching this team continue to grow into Champions.

And BTW, Deng is less likely than you'd think to be a "one and done" player. The Sudanese (not Senegalese, DaFuture) value education very highly, and Deng has said on several occasions that graduating from college is a priority in his life and it would ultimately be looked at more favorably by his parents (who happen to be Sudanese diplomats) and relatives than a career in the NBA. That said, he is probably too talented to stick around for more than 3 seasons, but I believe he is someone who will graduate at some point and that's tough to do when you only play one season. I'd bet on at least two years in Durham.

spartanfan2003

It is not just Taylor. We also could have had Zach Randolph and Jason Richardson. None of the guys you mentioned left early, with the exception of Jay Williams who graduated. All of those players I just named for Michigan State had not graduated. They could all still be on Michigan State currently. We also just lost All-American PG Charlie Bell. The reason that they single out Taylor is because the most important position in NCAA basketball is the point gaurd. No point gaurd equals no sucsess. In Jay Williams case though, I would say that it helped Duke. Williams lost Duke many key games. He was always over-hyped and over-rated, and now they have to make up excuses about Chicago's triangle offense because the NBA/NCAA tries to make Duke look like the God of all colleges, and can't afford to make their Player Of The Year (What a joke) look like he is failing in the NBA. But I guess it happens to most over-hyped Dukies, ie: Cherokee Parks and Grant Hill. They are over-hyped to the point where they can be injured all season and still make the All Star Game (Hill), but when the smoke clears people start to realize what bad careers they had. Anyway, back on Duke this year. They barely win out of the Carolinas, they have a powder puff schedule, as UKFan4Life pointed out they lost to CLEMSON and FLORIDA STATE, and yet they are still in the top ten. Don't cry me a river about having to play Freshman either. Your Frosh are as good as many team's starters. Yeah, life in Cameron is real tough. Duke really has to work for their rankings (sarcastically). Not to mention ESPN's top analyists are Duke buffs (Dikie V and former Duke player Jay Bilas). Stop making up excuses about losing your top 3 players when you guys still get everything handed to you on a silver platter.

rocketeer

so they only lose jones(their best player), sanders(a decent big man), and possibly duhon(a good but overrated pg). looks like a dominant team next year led by some overrated(but still good) sophomores(who were freshman this year) and some more freshman. for some reason i don't think that will be a very dominant team.

ChiBullsFan

Hmmm, let's think back to the 1999-2000 Duke team. Best player was Carrawell, a marginal NBA talent. They were led by other vets Battier and Nate James. And the rest of the team was a crop of freshmen.

You can't see the obvious parallels to this year's team? We will lose our best player, a marginal NBA talent in Dahntay. We will still have the veteran talents of Horvath, Duhon and Ewing (two seniors and a junior next year). Then we'll have a slew of top notch sophomores. It's the same prescription as the 2000-2001 championship Dukies, except that instead of going 6 deep, we will go 11 deep.

SpartanFan, you are so deluded. Duke deserves all the praise that it gets. It's a model college program any way you look at it. It is built on great coaching and great team basketball. The numbers of POYs, final four appearances and Nat'l titles speaks for itself.

Your post did not make a whole lot of sense, but it sounded like you said that losing Marcus Taylor was more impactful than losing Jay Williams??? Gimme a break. Where is Taylor right now? Mowing lawns? Williams "lost" DUke many games. What a laugh. What about, umm, I don't know WINNING THEM A CHAMPIONSHIP? AND TWO STRAIGHT NCAA POY AWARDS?

And Boozer and Dunleavy BOTH left early, so I don't know what rock you are living